Barking up the wrong tree: characterizing farmers, farms, and a behavioural framework regarding livestock guardian dog use in South Africa

Abstract

The relevance of livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) as a potentially non-lethal method of encouraging predator and livestock coexistence is seen as a responsible conservation tool. Decision making by landholders with regards to wildlife coexistence and depredation mitigation is difficult to measure and driven by numerous elements relating to the farmers, the farm environment, various social constructs as well as the landholders’ own attitudes, social pressures, perceived behavioural control and behavioural intent that leads to action. Understanding these landholders and the psychosocial dimensions of what influences LGD use is an important knowledge gap to fill if these LGDs are to better serve both livestock farmers and wildlife interests. In a quantitative survey study amongst 113 livestock farmers in South Africa, I explored and characterized the factors associated with LGD use. I consider human-wildlife coexistence, historical and current use of LGDs before exploring the knowledge gaps in LGD research pertaining to farmers and the factors associated with LGD use. Using Boosted Regression Trees (BRTs) – I explored and characterized several factors that are associated with LGD use. Users of LGDs were more likely to have a higher diversity of livestock species, have a reduced proportion of their total income derived from animals and use a greater number of non-lethal mitigation methods compared with LGD non-users. Sociodemographic and psychosocial constructs relating to wildlife value orientations, tolerance to predators, tangible and intangible cost and benefits of predators, empathy for predators, like or dislike of predators and number of positive experiences with predators were all less significant as determinants of LGD use than the more practical implications relating to predator type, number of farming enterprises, mitigation methods, and the frequency and extent of specific predator problems. Notably, a LGD support organization that places LGDs with farmers showed the greatest relative influence on LGD use. The third part of the study builds upon these findings utilizing the foundational constructs of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Wildlife Tolerance Model (WTM). Results showed that the three constructs of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control (PBC) explained 49 % of the variance in behavioural intent to use or continue using an LGD. The role of the LGD support organisation, farmers’ considerations of the perceived affordability, ease of use and effectiveness of LGDs and farmers’ mutualistic orientations were all strong predictors of LGD use. I conclude that farm and farmer characteristics should be an integral element in LGD support organizations objectives of achieving farmer-predator coexistence using LGDs. The TPB model, incorporating elements of the WTM, can be used as a framework in guiding predictability of intent to use or continue using LGDs. Using this model will aid in understanding LGD use as a depredation mitigation method and this in turn will help improve adoption of LGD programs as a carnivore coexistence strategy.